


Just Below the Waves

by Captain_Chaos



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Oh, Youll understand, ao3 is in denial, even though they arent you think thatll stop me, im giving it a mature rating because fuck is my favorite word, imagine if my parents knew about this account, it gets gay just bear with me, its a mermaid au, my new favorite insult is wrasse-hole, remus is creativity whether you like it or not, right - Freeform, say it out loud, theyd be so disappointed, yo what if axolotls were a deep sea dweller
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 14:42:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19703473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Chaos/pseuds/Captain_Chaos
Summary: I suck at summaries but... Roman gets turned into a mer by an aggravated sea witch, and wants to get back to his life on land, so he asks for help from a shark that found him in the middle of nowhere to find someone who can turn him back.





	Just Below the Waves

**Author's Note:**

> See what I said about sucking at summaries? Hopefully its really the tags that caught your eye.

So, here’s the deal. To humans, sea witches and merfolk don’t exist anywhere outside of children’s bedtime stories. Though a vast majority of the ocean has yet to be explored, mankind has written off stories of merfolk to mere fiction. There are few who do believe with their whole hearts, and then there are the dreamers who fantasize of a world filled with magic and adventure. However, the realist in them overrules it and these dreamers stick to their sad lives above the waves.

One such dreamer was Roman Prince. A lifeguard in Florida who bit off a bit more than he could chew in a minor tussle with a sea witch that… well let’s just say it didn’t end well for him. I’ll spare you the gory, unnecessary details. All you need to know for now is the he mistook a sea witch for a struggling woman and, because he’s a lifeguard, he jumped in to save her from drowning. As a result, the sea witch dragged Roman under water and ripped him limb from limb, rebuilding him in a newer, better (?) form.

After the sea witch was done with him, she cast his unconscious body away, letting him sink below the water down into the deep sea.

As luck would have it, a shark spotted him just far enough away for Roman to be a dark, slow-moving shadow in the water. His curiosity led him straight forward, tail pushing side to side, nose aimed down in a sluggish chase through the water. Once he was close enough to touch the other, he dragged him up to the seabed to get an even closer look.

The particular mer before him was unlike any merfolk in the area, not with the reef being so far away. Red and gold simply didn’t mix with the desolate blues and greys of the open water. Hell, the tan skin and brown hair made no sense either for him to be as far out as he was. Pretty faces like his belonged with the generally bustling schools at the reef.

Something about him made the shark feel uneasy, but the only way to get answers was to ask questions, and the guy could be hurt. He certainly smelled like he was hurt, considering how strong the scent of blood that wafted through the water was. However, a quick check showed no obvious signs of injury, and if he was suffering from internal bleeding this far down, he’d be dead by now.

…

After about an hour of waiting, the strange mer began to wake. The first thing he noticed was how cold he felt. Every joint and bone ached, and the freezing temperature wasn’t helping a thing. He could feel his heart hammering across his whole chest, and the throbbing pain that accompanied it woke him right up.

Roman made a feeble, honestly kind of pathetic attempt to sit up, when a gentle nudge from a clawed hand caught his full attention. Roman’s gaze followed the arm belonging to the hand all the way to a pair of luminous eyes that seemed to glow against the hazy blue scenery in a blur of vivid purples and greens.

Purple hair, fins where ears should have been, and multiple rows of razor sharp teeth leading to a thin frame ending in a long, shark-like tail. He managed to keep his cool up until the shark started to speak. Honest to god, the thing fucking _talked_ to Roman!

“Slow down, man. The water pressure might mess with your head if you aren’t careful,” it warned. Instead of heeding the warning, Roman made an attempt to stand and run away, only to fail and whip the shark in the face with a golden fin. “Okay, ow? Watch where you flail those things, you could’ve knocked my eye out of my skull.” The shark grumbled while rubbing it’s cheek, which had an angry red line from where Roman had hit it.

“What… what the hell are you,” Roman stuttered out, stumbling and grasping to make any sense of the situation.

“Are you blind or just that stupid?” The shark spat, giving Roman an unimpressed frown. “I’m a shark, dumbass. Maybe if you paid attention when you were a kid, you would know that. Don’t most wrasse warn their kids about sharks early on? Like, oh don’t play with him or he’ll rip your heart out for sport?”

“You’ll what?!”

“Hey, chill, I’m just saying. We don’t actually do that. Barracudas, yeah, but not sharks.” It shrugged- or he shrugged. Roman was still trying to get past the whole talking shark thing, so its gender wasn’t really at the forefront of his thoughts.

“Where am I?” Roman forced out, refusing to look away from the other. The shark scoffed in response.

“So you’re really just that stupid, huh? Well, welcome to a dark and dreary seabed in the middle of god knows where somewhere near Florida.” It focused it’s eyes on the camera off to the side.

“How did I get here?”

“What, did you get hit by a fishing boat? You’re a fucking mer. I figure being in the ocean shouldn’t be anything new.” The shark huffed irritably.

“Believe it or not, I’m not a mer. I’m a person.” Roman frowned, crossing his arms. The shark’s head whipped up, an angry scowl showing the slightest gleam of razor sharp teeth.

“So mers aren’t people? Let me guess, wrasse-holes like you are above us? Get over yourself, you’re related to a tiny, pathetic reef dweller that only smaller predators bother hunting.”

“No, no, I mean I’m a human. And really? Wrasse-holes?” Roman watched as the shark’s angry glare morphed into a look of confusion.

“Human? Nah, that’s not possible. How can you be a human if you don’t have legs? And better yet, how can you be a human and understand anything I’m saying?” It questioned, moving closer as if that would give him the answers he wanted.

“I don’t know. All I know is I went to help a woman that I thought was drowning, and she dragged me underwater. Next thing I know, I wake up only to be yelled at by a shark that’s way too sensitive.” Roman huffed, watching the bewildered mer piece together the generally useless explanation.

“Woman… wait, what did she look like?”

“The woman? Uhh… white hair, greyish skin, way too thin.” Roman listed off as many traits as he could recall until the shark interrupted with a groan.

“That wasn’t a woman, it was a sea witch.” He explained, running a hand through his hair. “If you really are telling the truth and you used to be human, you’ll need help from an alchemist. I know a girl, just ten miles west of here. If you’re a fast swimmer, it shouldn’t take you too long to find it.” Roman nodded, still remaining in place, watching the shark grab the camera to its left and swim off.

Curious, he followed, lingering a few feet behind until the shark stopped at the edge of a shallow drop-off. Roman could just make out the outline of a wrecked ship, and a concerning amount of both whale and shark skeletons. He cautiously approached, watching as the shark readied the camera and snapped a picture of the wreckage.

“What are you doing,” Roman asked, startling the other.

“Why does it matter to you?” The shark fiddled with the cord hanging off of the camera, not letting his hands be still for a single second.

“I’m just curious. What so interesting about this old shipwreck that made you want to take a picture?”

There was a beat of silence, and then a small sigh. “Everything around the wreck died after it sank. Nobody on the surface knows this is here, or what it’s doing to this area. You know there used to be tons of different species of fish that lived here? When this wreck appeared, everyone that left had to start over somewhere entirely new, and everyone that didn’t get away in time, they… they died because of sickness. I figure, if I let the humans know this is here, they’ll clean it up. Once I get enough pictures, I can leave this on the beach for someone to find.” He clutched the camera to his chest.

“It’s stupid, I know, and it’s not really doing anything, but… you know, it’s better than sitting and doing nothing, right?”

“It’s not stupid. You’re putting more effort than most of the people up there anyway,” Roman sighed, and rubbed his hands together. “You don’t happen to know the way to that alchemist from here, do you?”

“Hmm? Yeah, why?” The shark turned to face Roman.

“Well, I don’t really know my way around and—”

“And you need help finding it.” The shark rolled his eyes, tucking the camera into a little pouch Roman hadn’t noticed before. “Sure, I’ll take you. It’s about time I paid Ru a visit anyway,” he added absentmindedly, swimming off. “You coming?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, wait up.” Roman called, swimming to catch up, which was honestly not hard. “The name’s Roman, by the way,” he offered.

“Virgil,” was the only response.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have a set schedule, I really am just gonna try and get each chapter out as soon as I can. Also sorry if it gets confusing, I'm figuring things out myself. All I know is I had an idea I wanted to make a reality.


End file.
